[teqshea]

If you are referring to the prototype I posted, there is no pricing info I want to publish publically, way too early at this stage.

If you mean the Alara, well now, check our website, it just happens to be our Lunar new year sale



Thanks for buying, I hope you enjoy our Alara

Can you get your shipping dept to ship my Alara headphones. Your customer service people are clueless and non-responsive.

 

[razzer001]

I ordered a pair of Alara Headphones directly from Brainwavz. They were supposed to ship last Tuesday. They still have not shipped. I have sent them multiple emails. They said they lost my address or something to that effect - very difficult to understand them. They then said they would ship them but have not. They received payment but they have some severe internal shipping dept problems. I asked them if I should cancel my order. No responses except that they will ship them - but they do not actually ship them. I guess I need to contact my credit card company and cancel. Too bad this company is so screwed up.

Sorry about that. I am unsure as to why your order did not ship on time. According to the backend and customer support it would seem our system did not have your full address properly.

I do see you opened a second ticket 2 days ago for a refund but also confirmed to ship the order yesterday. If you still wish for a refund please can you update the ticket, out support staff will issue the refund promptly.

Unfortunately your order has not shipped this week as yet as there are public holidays for the lunar new year till Friday, postal services and our offices are closed.

Also to note, our customer service isnt located in Hong Kont, so they are working all week, but do note due to the time difference from where they are and you will make their reply seem to come in slow, but on a whole they do reply within 1 working day.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but I assure you it's worth the wait.

 

[teqshea]

Thank you so much for your courteous and excellent explanation. I appreciate it. I wish that the two responses from customer service had explained this, as you did. They said nothing about any of what you explained. I did not request to cancel the order, but I did ask if I should cancel the order. I might suggest that your customer service personnel be trained to be responsive, as you have been. Thank you very much. I understand the reason for the delay now and accept it as quite legitimate. I look forward to receiving the headphones.

 

[alvarg]

Thank you so much for your courteous and excellent explanation. I appreciate it. I wish that the two responses from customer service had explained this, as you did. They said nothing about any of what you explained. I did not request to cancel the order, but I did ask if I should cancel the order. I might suggest that your customer service personnel be trained to be responsive, as you have been. Thank you very much. I understand the reason for the delay now and accept it as quite legitimate. I look forward to receiving the headphones.

Good to see this is resolved, i've also bought these but i bought them last week and they were shipped on the Friday before the holiday i believe, but i suspect they are probably at a midway point till the holiday is over for me as well.

 

[teqshea]

Good to see this is resolved, i've also bought these but i bought them last week and they were shipped on the Friday before the holiday i believe, but i suspect they are probably at a midway point till the holiday is over for me as well.

c
Thank you very much for the information. I appreciate it. I hope we will both enjoy these headphones.

 

[alvarg]

Well i've recieved mine, very happy with them, the soundstage is pretty narrow which isn't that bad, I mean if you compare it to closed headphones it still sounds wider than that or at least less cramped, but not as wide as the average open headphone does. tonal balance is pretty neutral, with a bit of a bass boost, vocals are never sibilant, which is huge for me because i find almost every hifi headphone sibilant. great addition to my hd650s which I'll still use for a more relaxed sound, but its kind of crazy how bass light they sound in comparison now even though they are probably closer to neutral. These headphones are quite revealing of production flaws, not to the point that you can't listen though. these are a type of headphone that perform well on all genres of music.

Comparisons:

bass is harder hitting than the LCD2C (those are a bit flatter and softer in dynamics, the bass extension might go to lcd2 here but its pretty similar), HD650 (these don't produce much bass below 50hz and it hits really soft/woolly), Hifiman edition x (soft and slightly wooly as well but less than hd650)

treble is flatter and less peaky than the LCD2C (those dip massively at 1khz spike at 5khz), Hifiman Sundaras (dip a bit at 1khz rise back up around 4khz but stay up there till about 8khz before lowering again, lots of treble, to much in fact quite fatiguing at times) upper mids to treble isn't quite as extended or as smooth as the hd650 (not really surprised as they are very laid back or slightly rolled off) hifiman edition x (upper mids to treble is similar to hd650 but with more air and less veil although hex has less warm mids and sounds cooler/dryer than hd650)

Sound stage: As said before its pretty weak here losing to pretty much every other decent open headphone except maybe hd600s which from memory are pretty similar although its quite a forward sound (upper mid pushed) which may obscure the soundstage a bit.

detail and imaging, gotta say these things image like the beast, and never seem to struggle to keep everything sounding separate from each other despite the small space, and of course due to the lack of veil these things have they make details a lot more noticeable than the hd650, (hd650 probably has better micro and macro details but you really need a good amp to get those and even then) but the alara's have this focused sound that somehow allows you to hear all the details (in well recorded songs) but without killing you with it, or giving you listening fatigue.

If there was anything they could do to make this headphone better, I'd say make the soundstage slightly wider, but keep everything else the same and honestly it would probably be one of the best headphones you can buy.
in conclusion I've bought or heard at least 20 different pairs of audiophile level headphones and every single one of them (excluding the edition x and hd650) all had something about them that made me dislike them, and either sell them or return them but these do not, well i mean the headband is a little giant and if you have a small head you probably can't use these at all but other than that, sound wise nothing about these bothers me.

 

[negura]

A lot of this is similar to what I am hearing with the Quads. I am looking forward to compare them with the Alara, but haven't received a dispatch note yet.

I also have HD650 (modded) and LCD2C amongst other HPs, and yeah pretty much what you said. The imaging and focus are really impressive, despite the smallish stage, and another level from both HD650 and LCD2C. They resolve a bit better than my HD650, both on top amplification (2x dual mono AHB2), and definitely better than the LCD2C.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I just posted a video review / unboxing of HM100. This takes place of my usual first impressions video for now

I'm around if you need help!

I will be doing the same for Alara soon.... Very soon

 

[dpump]

Ordered Alara Saturday night but I haven't received shipping notification yet. I emailed Brainwavz when the Lunar Sale first started and asked if the Alara ships from the USA. Reply from customer service was that the Alara ships from Hong Kong and isn't stocked in the USA. What...? Doesn't seem logical to me that Brainwavz just released and are hyping the Alara and they're not even stocking it in the USA? I would think the USA is one of their largest markets but maybe they just haven't had time get stock here.

I also paid $18 extra for FedEx Express shipping. Brainwavz says they offer express shipping but they don't specify the usual shipping time for the express service. They say their free standard shipping to the USA is normally 10-20 working days. Anyone have any experience with the FedEx Express service time?

Looking forward to receiving the Alara. I've been researching the Quad ERA1 along with the Alara, but the Lunar Sale price on the Alara along with a further 10% Head-Fi discount made purchasing the Alara an easy choice. Plus I have some upgraded cables from other phones, including balanced ones, that it appears I will be able to use on the Alara. There has also been some comments that the Alara has a little more high end response than the Quad and my old ears may need that!

 

[teqshea]

Ordered Alara Saturday night but I haven't received shipping notification yet. I emailed Brainwavz when the Lunar Sale first started and asked if the Alara ships from the USA. Reply from customer service was that the Alara ships from Hong Kong and isn't stocked in the USA. What...? Doesn't seem logical to me that Brainwavz just released and are hyping the Alara and they're not even stocking it in the USA? I would think the USA is one of their largest markets but maybe they just haven't had time get stock here.

I also paid $18 extra for FedEx Express shipping. Brainwavz says they offer express shipping but they don't specify the usual shipping time for the express service. They say their free standard shipping to the USA is normally 10-20 working days. Anyone have any experience with the FedEx Express service time?

Looking forward to receiving the Alara. I've been researching the Quad ERA1 along with the Alara, but the Lunar Sale price on the Alara along with a further 10% Head-Fi discount made purchasing the Alara an easy choice. Plus I have some upgraded cables from other phones, including balanced ones, that it appears I will be able to use on the Alara. There has also been some comments that the Alara has a little more high end response than the Quad and my old ears may need that!

They were supposed to ship mine two weeks ago but they screwed up and did not ship them until Monday. They sent them by FedEx and I received a notice from FedEx that they will be delivered on Thursday. That is three day shipping from Hong Kong to Nebraska - pretty darn good if they actually do that.

 

[razzer001]

Rough price guide @razzer001?

Ordered Alara Saturday night but I haven't received shipping notification yet. I emailed Brainwavz when the Lunar Sale first started and asked if the Alara ships from the USA. Reply from customer service was that the Alara ships from Hong Kong and isn't stocked in the USA. What...? Doesn't seem logical to me that Brainwavz just released and are hyping the Alara and they're not even stocking it in the USA? I would think the USA is one of their largest markets but maybe they just haven't had time get stock here.

I also paid $18 extra for FedEx Express shipping. Brainwavz says they offer express shipping but they don't specify the usual shipping time for the express service. They say their free standard shipping to the USA is normally 10-20 working days. Anyone have any experience with the FedEx Express service time?

Looking forward to receiving the Alara. I've been researching the Quad ERA1 along with the Alara, but the Lunar Sale price on the Alara along with a further 10% Head-Fi discount made purchasing the Alara an easy choice. Plus I have some upgraded cables from other phones, including balanced ones, that it appears I will be able to use on the Alara. There has also been some comments that the Alara has a little more high end response than the Quad and my old ears may need that!

The previous week our big lunar new year sale brought in a lot of orders which basically could only go out starting this past Monday, so we've been backlogged the last 2-3 days, but you and anyone else that placed a Alara order during that period will have shipped. Fedex to USA typically takes 2-3 working days.

 

[razzer001]

Z Reviews has posted their video review of our Alara.

 

[negura]

 

[negura]

These headphones seem to have a lot in common, but there are also some differences.
- the headbands seem a bit different. The Alara one is thinner, the Quad one plusher. I prefer the latter, but the difference is small.
- the arcing of the headband is also a bit different, with the Alara being more elongated and the Quad slightly wider.
- the drivers look identical from what I can observe
- the pads work on both headphones
- the internal wiring from what I can see has a different colour, so probably different wires connecting the plug to the driver
- the build quality seems really good with both models, with metalic cups for the enclosure. The gimbals seem to be made out of plastic, but that might not matter at all.
- most important so far: the actual sensitivity of the drivers is not the same. The Quads I have are a bit more inefficient, so I had to adjust volume for comparison.

After a few hours playing the first impression, using the same leather pads from the Quads, sound wise they have unsurprisingly quite a few things in common. That said my Quads pair have a faster, more focused, more resolving and more dynamic sound. The Alara have slower more rounded bass, and are softer smoother, slightly more dense sounding. The high treble is more present on the Quads. Some of these differences are relatively small, some a bit bigger and there's a lot in common sound wise, such as the midrange.

For sound reasons I do not like the pads that come with the Alara or the velour pads for the Quads. They hold the headphones back in my opinon, reducing the stage 3D and overall size, dynamics and transient/edge focus, and hence resolution. The angled leather pads are a must have for me. I suggest to consider adding this option to Alara, looking at the Quad example.

Of course the Alara might open up more with more hours on them and I will update accordingly. The Quads I've had for a few weeks and they were ex-demo so any burn-in should that matter is a done deal.

Since I really like the Quads, and I think they offer tremendous performance for the price, the same goes for the Alara, the latter being cheaper, with the caveats I mentioned. Despite the delay shipping, once they got shipped they were delivered to me in 4 working days using free shipping, so I think that's great.

 

[ahmonge]

I ordered the HM100 yesterday thru Amazon Spain. Waiting to get it and see how it performs. I’m really excited!